BREAKING 1 -- POLITICO's Eamon Javers: "President Barack Obama used his weekly address Saturday to respond to what he deemed 'willful misrepresentations and outright distortions' of his plan for 'health insurance reform.' 'I want to spend a few minutes debunking some of the more outrageous myths circulating on the internet, on cable TV, and repeated at some town halls across this country,' the president said."

BREAKING 2 -- AP: "Forecasters have issued a tropical storm warning for the Massachusetts coastline as Hurricane Bill speeds toward the U.S. The warning, which includes the islands of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, means tropical storm-force winds of 40 mph (64 kph) or more could hit the coastline in the next 24 hours. Bill remained a Category 2."

Good Saturday morning. TOP TALKER -- Chicago Sun-Times, “D.C. bids [Robert D.] Novak last farewell: Conservative icon praised for work ethic, love of family,” by Lynn Sweet: “Novak's funeral at St. Patrick's Church [was] a simple, very religious send-off for one of the nation's most influential print and broadcast journalists. About 500 people filled the 26 rows of wooden pews, with extra chairs set up for the overflow crowd. The downtown church was stuffed with reporters and broadcasters with familiar names and political figures -- including Karl Rove -- but two priests who knew Novak well were the only ones to speak. That's how Novak, who died Tuesday morning after a struggle with brain cancer, wanted it. He was 78. … The funeral drew a who's who: many of Novak's print friends in the Gridiron Club; a large contingent from CNN; MSNBC's Chris Matthews, host of ‘Hardball’; Betsy Fischer, executive producer of NBC's ‘Meet the Press’; Fred Barnes, executive editor of the Weekly Standard; the Capital Gang -- Al Hunt, Mark Shields and Kate O'Beirne; conservative Pat Buchanan, plus Democratic strategists Robert Shrum, Donna Brazile and Paul Begala. … On the steps of the church after the funeral, I asked Rove how he remembered Novak. Said Rove, ‘I think of the Bob Novak I had breakfast or lunch or dinner with around Christmas time in Texas for 25 years and a guy who was relentlessly interested in news and facts and story and politics.’”

WEST WING MUST-READ -- Secretary Clinton exclusive op-ed for PEOPLE.com, “What I Saw in Goma: In 11 days of travel across Africa, I saw humanity at its worst – and at its best. In Goma [in the Democratic Republic of the Congo] last week, I saw both. … The day must come when the women of the eastern Congo can walk freely again, to tend their fields, play with their children and collect firewood and water without fear. … Working together, we will banish sexual violence into the dark past, where it belongs, and help the Congolese people seize the opportunities of a new day.” http://bit.ly/euUmu

FLASHBACK: In October 2008, Newsweek editor Jon Meacham wrote a cover entitled "America the Conservative," making the case that we are fundamentally a center-right nation. Liberals pushed back hard, pointing to polls and the Obama juggernaut. But now we see the DNA of the town halls.

EXCLUSIVE: Labor launches its first big action in the 2009 Virginia Governor’s race today, as an all-day canvass in the “high hundreds” of folks fans out in NoVa, Norfolk, Richmond and Roanoke. The AFL-CIO talking points: Bob McDonnell, the Republican, “supported the rejection of $125 million in federal assistance for Virginia’s unemployed workers … [is] A Friend to Health Insurance and Drug Companies … Sides with Big Business over Working Families.”

WASHINGTON PAUSES FOR BREATH: “The President will spend Saturday at Camp David. On Sunday, the First Family will travel to Martha’s Vineyard. The arrival at Cape Cod Coast Guard Air Station is open press. The President will remain at Martha’s Vineyard through Sunday, August 30th. He has no scheduled public events.”

TOP STORY -- AP, “$2 trillion higher deficit projected,” by Jim Kuhnhenn and Andrew Taylor: “The Obama administration expects the federal deficit over the next decade to be $2 trillion bigger than previously estimated, White House officials said Friday, a setback for a president already facing a Congress and public wary over spending. The new projection, to be announced on Tuesday, is for a cumulative 2010-2019 deficit of $9 trillion instead of the $7 trillion previously estimated. The new figure reflects slumping revenues from a worse economic picture than was expected earlier this year. … Both the White House and the Congressional Budget Office scheduled announcements for Tuesday on their new budget estimates.

"Relying on more pessimistic economic projections than the White House, the CBO earlier this year predicted deficits totaling $9.1 trillion over 2010-19. Those predictions were based on expectations that the economy would shrink by 2.2 percent this year. In its earlier projections, the White House said the deficit would be manageable if it slides to 3 percent of gross domestic product. … Now, the deficits could easily exceed 4 percent of GDP, even after cost-cutting efforts or new revenues claimed in Obama's budget. Such deficits have always prompted Congress and the White House to take politically painful steps to curb them, such as former President Bill Clinton's tax-heavy 1993 deficit reduction plan. A companion effort by Obama could force him to break his promise to not raise taxes on individuals making less than $200,000 a year.”

PUNDIT PREP -- WSJ A6, “Afghanistan Contractors Outnumber Troops: Despite Surge in U.S. Deployments, More Civilians Are Posted in War Zone; Reliance Echoes the Controversy in Iraq,” by August Cole: “Even as U.S. troops surge to new highs in Afghanistan they are outnumbered by military contractors working alongside them, according to a Defense Department census due to be distributed to Congress -- illustrating how hard it is for the U.S. to wean itself from the large numbers of war-zone contractors that proved controversial in Iraq. The number of military contractors in Afghanistan rose to almost 74,000 by June 30, far outnumbering the roughly 58,000 U.S. soldiers on the ground at that point. As the military force in Afghanistan grows further, to a planned 68,000 by the end of the year, the Defense Department expects the ranks of contractors to increase more.”

DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE FOR SALE -- WSJ B1, “Dow Jones Weighs Sale of Stock-Index Operation,” by Dennis K. Berman and Jeffrey McCracken: “Dow Jones & Co. has been sounding out potential buyers for the company's stock-market indexing business, according to people familiar with the matter, in a move that could result in the sale of the storied Dow Jones Industrial Average. The process, which is being conducted by Goldman Sachs Group Inc., could lead to a joint venture or different combination. The discussions are moving in fits and starts and mightn't result in any sale, these people said. One contender for the business is MSCI Inc., a former unit of Morgan Stanley specializing in building market indexes, said a person familiar with the matter. … The potential sale shows that News Corp., which purchased the publisher of The Wall Street Journal in late 2007 for more than $5.3 billion, is willing to shuffle its Dow Jones assets. The deal came at a market top, with News Corp. writing down $2.8 billion of the value of Dow Jones this year. …

“The indexes business -- which creates and licenses indexes for use on mutual funds, exchange-traded funds and other products -- is a relatively stable and profitable unit for Dow Jones amid a period of steep revenue decline in its core newspaper franchise. … Introduced in 1896 by Charles Dow -- a precursor version of mostly railroad companies started publishing in 1884 -- the average was designed to give investors a snapshot at overall market activity. … The broad name recognition of the index will likely be a reason to keep the name intact under a new owner. A person familiar with the matter said that any deal would likely require that the Dow Jones name remain. … One rough comparison is to benchmark it to MSCI. That company trades at roughly seven times revenue. Assuming the Dow Jones Indexes performance has been relatively unchanged from 2007, that would value the unit at $700 million or more.”

**A message from AFSCME’s Highway 2 Healthcare Tour: AFSCME Rocks and Rolls for Reform during August Recess. For a tour schedule, go to www.Highway2Healthcare.com. **

THE BIG IDEA -- “Obama's Big Bang could go bust,” by POLITICO’S Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei: “[T]he abrupt swing in the public’s mood, from optimism about Obama’s possibility to concern he may overreaching, has thrown the White House off its strategy and forced the president to curtail his ambitions. … ‘The majority-makers are the freshman and sophomores from conservative districts where there’s this narrative building about giveaways, buyouts and too much change at once,’ said a top House Democratic strategist, who requested anonymity to discuss internal politics candidly. ‘There’s this big snowball building in those districts. That’s why those folks are so scared.’ David Axelrod, Obama’s political architect, said it was ‘very clear early in the transition’ that Obama would have to attack a number of festering issues simultaneously. ‘The times demanded it,’ he said in an interview. ‘We didn’t have the luxury of taking things sequentially, year after year, and hoping we got there. That’s the reason that all these major issues had been deferred for decades: Change is hard.’ Axelrod said the president is ‘looking forward to an active fall’ when he returns from next week’s vacation on Martha’s Vineyard, and is not as worried about the outlook as the denizens of Washington, where ‘every day is election day.’ …

“[T]he ‘Big Bang’ theory of governance, as some White House insiders called it, is not without risk and consequences. By doing so much, so fast, Obama gave Republicans the chance to define large swaths of the debate. … By doing so much, so fast, Obama never sufficiently educated the public on the logic behind his policies. … By doing so much so fast, Obama jammed the circuits on Capitol Hill. … By doing so doing so much, so fast, he has left voters — especially independents — worried that he got an overblown sense of his mandates and is doing, well, too much too fast. … Go-big-or-go-home isn't the only theory of the case that a new president can adopt. The most promising alternative is to build public support over time by showing competence and success, then using that to leverage bigger things. So imagine if Obama had focused on fixing the economy, and chosen presidential power over congressional accommodation and constructed his American Recovery and Reinvestment Act as a true, immediate stimulus without the pork and paybacks. He then could have pushed through tougher regulation of financial institutions, making it clear people were paying for their sins, and would have a much harder time doing it again. This would have delighted the left and perhaps bought Obama more durable support among independents. Instead, the left thinks he’s beholden to investment banks, and much of the public sees no consequences for the financial mess. Add in some serious budget cuts, and Obama would have positioned himself as a new kind of liberal with the courage to tame Washington and Wall Street, as promised. Under this scenario, Obama might be getting more credit for the economic recovery that appears to be under way. This would have positioned him to win health care reform starting next year — a mighty achievement, and clear vindication against the doubters.” http://bit.ly/2G9wDL

PRESIDENTIAL VACATIONS:

--CBS’s MARK KNOLLER -- “White House Not Shy About Calling it a ‘Vacation’: The Obama White House is not at bit shy about using the ‘V’ word and saying flat out: the president is taking ten days vacation. You don't yet hear the euphemisms that officials in previous administrations used to employ in an effort to disguise what the president was doing: such phrases as ‘down time,’ ‘change of venue’ or as a last resort, ‘working vacation.’ Presidents are self-conscious about taking vacation. And the more they take, the more self-conscious. No matter how hard they work or how much they've earned some time off, they'll face criticism for taking a breather. But this is President Obama's first vacation as president, so the criticism is muted, though not invisible. And White House spokesman Robert Gibbs offers no apologies or equivocations about Mr. Obama's right and need to get away. ‘I don't think the American people begrudge a president taking some time with his family that's well-earned and well-deserved for a few days to see and spend time with them,’ said Gibbs at his last pre-vacation press briefing. … Martha's Vineyard has a well-earned reputation as a summer haven for the rich and famous. President Clinton and family took six of their eight summer vacations on the Vineyard. Other presidents have vacationed there dating back to Ulysses Grant in 1874. But the island is an easy target for critics. Even former President George W. Bush enjoyed taking a swipe at those who vacation there. He thought his hot and dusty ranch in Crawford, Texas, was a more fitting vacation place for a president because ‘most Americans don't sit in Martha's Vineyard swilling white wine.’” http://bit.ly/8ckhy

--Boston Globe p.1, “New England’s lure as presidential escape: Region called welcoming, ‘noncontroversial,’” by Susan Milligan: “What began as a ride in specially appointed trains has evolved to a flight aboard Air Force One. But whatever the mode of travel, generations of presidents have headed north to New England in the summer when Washington and its politics got too hot. So many presidents have flocked to its gentle mountains and Atlantic shores, going back at least as far as Ulysses S. Grant and winding up tomorrow when President Obama arrives on Martha’s Vineyard, that it perhaps offers some solace for New England’s poor showing in recent decades in producing a presidential winner. ‘Historically, it is a summer playground,’ said Barbara Kellerman, public leadership lecturer at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. And for politics-sensitive presidents, she said, the region is ‘a totally noncontroversial choice and authentically welcoming.’ It certainly has a bipartisan attraction. Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower set up a Summer White House in Newport. The GOP’s William Howard Taft preferred Beverly. Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt, cruised along the New England Coast from Massachusetts to Maine one summer.

“August shutdowns are a Washing ton, D.C., tradition. Built on a former swamp, the city many years ago posed health hazards in the summer. And in the days before air conditioning, the Capitol was intolerable. Train routes running straight up the East Coast made getting to cooler climes relatively easy. ‘You had to get out of Washington for practical reasons. It was so hot. You had malaria, mosquitoes carrying diseases,’ … said Boston University social science professor and presidential scholar Thomas Whalen. But even after modern conveniences like air conditioning and Air Force One made it possible for presidents to go nearly anywhere, commanders-in-chief continue to flock to New England states for their summer breaks. Obama - who is reportedly renting the Blue Heron Farm estate in Chilmark for his brief break - becomes the third sitting president to vacation on Martha’s Vineyard. Grant spent time there in 1874, while Bill Clinton made six trips to the island.”

CHICAGO CUBS SOLD FOR $845 million:

--Chicago Tribune banner: “Cubs deal—signed / THE DEAL: Ricketts family to pay about $800 million / WHAT’S NEXT: Bankruptcy court, MLB must approve pact,” by Ameet Sachdev: “Nothing seems to come easy for the Chicago Cubs. The last two years of excruciat¬ing playoff losses. The Bartman game. The century without a championship. Maybe all that will change under new ownership by the Ricketts family, but events leading up to Friday’s deal fit the tortured his¬tory of the franchise. More than two years after the team was put up for sale, inter-rupted by the global financial melt¬down and Tribune Co.’s bank¬ruptcy filing, the Cubs finally are set to get a new owner. Tribune Co. said Friday that it signed an agreement to sell the team to the Rickettses, a wealthy family from Omaha that made its multibillion-dollar fortune build¬ing an online stock brokerage. The Rickettses will pay about $800 million to acquire a 95 percent interest in a package of assets: the team, Wrigley Field and Tribune Co.’s 25 percent stake in Comcast SportsNet Chicago, which broad¬casts many Cubs games on cable television. The agreement values the team and related assets at $845 million.”

--Chicago Sun-Times cover: “SOLD” -- By David Roeder: “Tribune Co. at last made it official today — it has sold the Chicago Cubs to the Ricketts family. The company said the deal was for $845 million and allows Tribune to retain a 5 percent ownership stake. Company boss Sam Zell used the retention of a small interest to reduce taxes from the sale. The sale includes Wrigley Field and Tribune’s 25 percent interest in Comcast SportsNet Chicago. Closing on the sale still requires consents from Major League Baseball and the federal bankruptcy court. Tribune is in bankruptcy and negotiating with lenders over a $13 billion debt load. How the proceeds of the Cubs sale will be handled will be decided at future hearings. ‘Our family is thrilled to have reached an agreement to acquire a controlling interest in the Chicago Cubs, one of the storied franchises in sports,’ said Joe Ricketts, the family patriarch who founded the online brokerage now known as TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. He is from Omaha but three of his four children are from the Chicago area, including bond dealer Thomas Ricketts, who led the family’s bid. ‘The Cubs have the greatest fans in the world, and we count our family among them,’ Joe Ricketts said. ‘We look forward to closing the transaction so that we can begin leading the Cubs to a World Series title.’ Tribune bought the Cubs from the Wrigley family for $20.5 million in 1981. Conclusion of the sale followed prolonged negotiations in which both Ricketts and Zell maneuvered for advantages.”

ALSO DRIVING THE CONVERSATION:

--Bloomberg News, “‘Out of Whack’ Tuition May Drive Away Students, Duncan Say,” by Molly Peterson: “Private colleges may price themselves out of the market if they don't hold down tuition increases, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said. Parents and students will choose among universities offering ‘no-frill campuses’ and three-year degree programs over those whose prices ‘get out of whack with reality,’ Duncan said in an interview on Bloomberg Television's ‘Political Capital With Al Hunt,’ airing today. The average tuition at private four-year colleges increased 5.9 percent to $25,143 in the 2008-2009 school year, according to the New York-based College Board. ‘At a time when going to college has never been more important, it's never been more expensive,’ Duncan said.”

--OFFICIALS WORRIED ABOUT AFGHANISTAN RUNOFF ELECTION -- N.Y. Times col. 1, “Afghan Election Poses New Tests for Washington,” by Helene Cooper and Carlotta Gall: “Obama administration officials hoped the Afghan election would demonstrate that eight years after the American invasion, the country was stable enough to justify an expanded commitment of money and troops from an increasingly skeptical American public. Instead, the election did more to underscore the challenges Afghanistan faces, particularly if the election goes to a runoff, as seems increasingly likely, between President Hamid Karzai and his main challenger, Abdullah Abdullah. Both men claimed to be winning as ballots were counted Friday, though officials said preliminary results would not be announced until Tuesday, and final results at least two weeks later. In the meantime, complaints of fraud and specific episodes of ballot stuffing mounted, and they may assume increasing importance. Western officials here expressed relief that many Afghans defied Taliban threats of reprisals and came out to vote. But they were clearly concerned on Friday that a second round of voting could extend the paralysis of a government that already barely functions and deepen ethnic tensions, in the worst case, to the point of a north-south civil war. In addition, a runoff would leave up in the air many of the Obama administration’s Afghanistan policy initiatives — like fighting corruption and improving distribution of aid — for at least another two months, American officials said. The new uncertainties come on top of the stiff military challenges facing the Obama administration as it sends thousands more troops to southern Afghanistan, where Taliban attacks and very low turnout on election day made clear the insurgents’ influence.”

--L.A Times lead story: “State jobless rate highest since WWII: The figure rises to 11.9%, a sign of continuing weakness despite hints of a recovery nationwide.”

BUSINESS BURST -- Financial Times lead story, “Bernanke cautiously optimistic on growth”: “The global economy seems about to start to grow again, Ben Bernanke said on Friday, declaring that vigorous actions by the world’s central banks and governments had succeeded in averting economic catastrophe. ‘Prospects for a return to growth in the near term appear good,’ the Federal Reserve chairman told central bankers at their annual retreat in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. However, European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet said at the same symposium that talk of economic conditions’ returning to normal made him ‘a little bit uneasy’.”

SPORTS BLINK -- “Nervous Favre debuts for Vikes, who beat Chiefs,” AP/Minneapolis: “In a meaningless exhibition as he began his 19th NFL season, Brett Favre felt the butterflies. Camera flashes illuminated the Metrodome on each of his eight plays for Minnesota, and only one completed pass was captured on film. After an injury-free night without any major blunders, though, Favre declared his Vikings debut a success. His predictably brief preseason performance was the obvious highlight of a 17-13 victory by the Vikings on Friday over the Kansas City Chiefs, preserved by a goal line stand by the third-stringers. ‘I just didn't want to fumble the snap,’ Favre said. ‘Wanted to make sure I got the handoffs. If you complete passes, great. But I was nervous about that.’ Cheered loudly by the same fans who used to loathe him when he played for Green Bay, Favre played two series and went 1 for 4 for a whopping 4 yards. He moved around all right and his passes had zip, just no direction. … ‘He did tell me that no one's tackled him off his tractor,’ coach Brad Childress said. ‘Good for him to get hit.’ Favre worked out at his local high school all summer as he built his strength back following arthroscopic surgery on his throwing arm.”

DESSERT: “Spike Lee's Jackson birthday bash could draw 10K,” AP: “New York City officials want to find a larger place for Spike Lee to hold his celebration of Michael Jackson's birthday. The filmmaker had planned to mark the late King of Pop's birthday with a block party-style bash in Brooklyn's Fort Greene park on Aug. 29, when Jackson would have turned 51. But a spokeswoman for Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Friday that city officials and Lee are looking at other sites because crowd estimates have grown. The event's original permit envisioned 2,000 people attending. But because of nationwide publicity, organizers now expect the crowd to exceed 10,000. The city says Brooklyn's Prospect Park is a possible alternative. Lee collaborated on Jackson's video for ‘They Don't Care About Us.’”

** The AFSCME Highway to Health Care Reform RV will travel through key states mobilizing the public to contact their members of Congress to demand real reform -- reform that guarantees quality, affordable health care for all. The Highway to Health Care Reform tour is part of the union’s unprecedented $6 million Make America Happen campaign, which includes ads, canvassing, phone calls, online activities and the deployment of dozens of campaign field organizers to key states in support of President Obama’s efforts to win real health care reform this year. Check out the tour schedule at www.Highway2Healthcare.com.**

****** A message from UnitedHealth Group: What does it take to create a modern, high-performing, simpler health care system? Expanding access to care through proven state-based coverage and employer-sponsored insurance. Making health care more affordable with consumer-directed care and value-based payments. Supporting and modernizing Medicare to meet the complex health challenges of America’s seniors. And reinvesting in health to support research and innovation. Learn more about these ideas at http://www.unitedhealthgroup.com ******

Authors:

About The Author

Mike Allen is the chief White House correspondent for POLITICO. He comes to us from Time magazine where he was their White House correspondent. Prior to that, Allen spent six years at The Washington Post, where he covered President Bush's first term, Capitol Hill, campaign finance, and the Bush, Gore and Bradley campaigns of 2000. Before turning to national politics, he covered schools and local governments in rural counties outside Fredericksburg, Va., for The Free Lance-Star, then wrote about Doug Wilder, Oliver North, Chuck Robb and the Bobbitts for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, where he nurtured police sources on overnight ride-alongs through housing projects. Allen also covered Mayor Giuliani, the Connecticut statehouse and the wacky rich of Greenwich for The New York Times. Before moving to The Times, he did stints in the Richmond and Alexandria bureaus of The Washington Post. Allen grew up in Orange County, Calif., and has a B.A. from Washington and Lee University, where he majored in politics and journalism.